As a contribution to the play Wings – A story about living in a white society at Theater Grob at Nørrebro, Hvid[mə] Archive has been exhibited in the theater foyer. The play tells the story of four people whose common problems suddenly become more complex when skin colour and ethnicity are brought into the equation.

How do you find a foothold with a mixed background in a white country? How do you define an identity that is not either-or, but both-and?

The play is written by Joan Rang and ran from 20th August to 10th September 2016.

M A N I F E S T O

Hvid[mə] Archive will question whiteness as the default. The archive will highlight the ubiquitous structures that maintain and cultivate hierarchies that suppres.

Hvid[mə] Archive addresses the colonial aftermath and seeks to expose the collective amnesia in historiography of Denmark as a Nordic colonial power.

Hvid[mə] Archive has an activistic approach to language. As an entry level, we will re-actualize the old Danish word hvidme, that became obsolete in the early nineteen-hundreds. By re-introducing hvidme to our contemporary vocabulary we wish to open a critical discussion on whiteness where the common word hvidhed is inadequate and too categorical.

Hvid[mə] Archive works toward an anti-sublime-demonstration of the white colour. By means of the suffix -me the archive seeks to tie white to substance (the material, the body) and the actual experienced reality. The suffix -me is linked to a sentient body that stores memory and trauma.

Hvid[mə] Archive is not a proposal to use the word hvidme as an aesthetic approach to the white colour, it is not a celebration. The hvidme-concept must problematize whiteness.

Hvid[mə] Archive will showcase the white violence, the European imperialism, the institutional power structures, the construction of race, as well as body and territories as capital.